I'm headed to the State Math Competition. It's a 2.5 hour drive
so I'll be in a hotel. Gone for a day.
From the rules:
Calculators are allowed except for the TI-92 (and any calculators with a QWERTY keyboard).
HP-49g
HP-50
89T
DOOM
It seems they are not updated...
(This isn't really a goodbye, but I thought the rules were so funny.)
Cool! I hope you do well! Use your calculator as much as you can!
Posting from PSP
No individual award, but team got second.
In the state.
EDIT:
I'm home.
Let's see...
-First of all, this competition has always had a reputation of horribly wording their questions. This year was no different. Two questions (for my grade) probably messed up the majority of the people.
-Well, one problem, I made kind of complicated. At least I ended up with double of the correct answer.
-I actually finished all thirty questions (not many people did, but I apparently did not get too many correct
)
Oh well. At least I got a nice ribbon for being on the 2nd place team.
First place in my grade was Darryl Wu. Math wiz. Super genius. Got perfect score on math SATs. In 5th grade. And he earned a scholarship at some other competition. Was in the newspaper.
Oh yeah. One more thing. At the beginning, the proctor says, "Anyone have a TI-92? If you do, I'm gonna hafta break it." I ask, "What about the TI-V200? Those have QWERTY keyboards."
*Blank stares*
Whew.
At least you did *sort of* well.
It kind of annoys me though that calculators such as TI-89 Titaniums are allowed, while other such as TI-92s aren't just because of their QWERTY keyboards.
*reads description of 89*
You know, on TI's website (or maybe ticalc.org), it says some thing to the effect of, "The TI-89 is the TI-92 in classic calculator shape." (or whatever)
Well, their logic is: "If it's bigger, it's better." I think.
On most competitions though, calcs aren't allowed, so this is a special case. I brought my 84 just in case, anyway.
They usually have these rules due to the QWERTY keyboards having the possibility of copying down the problems or something. Of course, anyone who used another calculator for typing for more than one week or so can do the same in a bit more time.
The questions from previous competitions are made public after a little while (at this competition), so why would it matter?